| Description |
Post-traumatic headache (PTH) is identified as one of the most frequent symptoms following traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Faux & Sheedy, 2008). Despite the high prevalence, there are currently no treatments which specifically target PTH. Instead of etiology-specific treatments, individuals suffering from PTH receive treatments used for primary headache disorders, particularly migraine (Mares, Dagher, & Harissi-Dagher, 2019). However, it remains unclear if treatments paradigms based upon primary headache phenotype (e.g., migraine and tension-type headache) are suitable for treating PTH. Also, the underlying mechanisms of PTH are poorly understood compared to those of migraine, which may also contribute to reduced effectiveness and efficacy of current PTH treatments (Ashina et al., 2021). A lack of PTH preclinical models has been discussed as one challenging contributing factor to the poor understanding of PTH mechanisms. The goal of this literature review is to discuss current knowledge of both PTH and migraine pathophysiology supported by small and large animal studies to identify the similarities and differences. This review also establishes the lack of animal studies on PTH and the importance of conducting pre-clinical studies using large animals for better clinical translation and the development of more effective treatments. Although the exact mechanisms of PTH are not clear, this review compares neuronal pathways involved in PTH mechanisms to those in migraine and assesses how well the findings translate to pathophysiology in humans. Although significant discoveries have been made in recent PTH research, there is a pressing need for development of clinically-relevant animal models to better model human PTH pathophysiology for improved identification of specific pathophysiological targets for effective PTH treatments. |
